Category Archives: Featured

Behind the B3: Putting Together A Music Festival (aka, What Was I Thinking??)

Putting a music festival together is a lot of work, a whole lot of work, more work than I could have ever imagined.  I know this because we just hosted the first ever family music festival in Oklahoma, Wiggle Out Loud, on September 1st of this year, and it was a lot of work.  You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in several months, this is because I never realized how all consuming putting together a festival was going to be. Did I mention it was a lot of work?  Okay, just making sure I got that point across.

So why do it? I asked myself that question numerous times over the past year or so, but the plain and simple answer is the time was right, Oklahoma was ready.  For several years we have played at the amazing Jiggle Jam Family Festival in Kansas City, Mo on Memorial Day weekend and have always been so impressed by what a fantastic event it is. It was always in the back of our minds that it would be so great to try putting together something similar in OKC, an idea that was reinforced and encouraged by our good friend Dana Morrow, Director of Outreach for our local Metropolitan Library System (she’s also one of our biggest inspirations and cheerleaders). The market for family music in this area has grown exponentially since our foray into the genre in 2007 to the point that there are now at least three family acts in the OKC metro area.  The time was right.

Okay, that’s great, we thought it would be cool to “one day” do a festival.  For several years that was about the extent of it, until we met our good friend Rob Crissinger.  Rob is a PR man extraordinaire (and all around great guy) for Bumbershoot PR, an awesome community-minded public relations firm here in OKC we work with on the local level.  When we first met I mentioned something to him in passing about doing an OKC family music fest and Rob immediately started connecting the dots with suggestions of amazing people who would love to be involved………and thus the ball started rolling.

This brings us to the folks that helped make it all happen.  It’s just not possible to put together an event like this by yourself, so finding people who know way more about their festival positions than you ever could is paramount.  For instance, you get someone from the art museum and local symphony to chair the art/music activities committee, you get someone from the city’s public school system physical education department to chair the exercise/movement activities committee, and so on and so on.  We were so fortunate to have well respected and accomplished members of high profile community organizations and local businesses involved with the planning.  They all genuinely wanted to see the festival succeed for the good of the community and the event truly benefited from their expertise. In my mind they were, without question, the key to Wiggle Out Loud’s success.

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So if we had all these amazing people on board what was so hard about it?  Well it wasn’t that each thing needing to be done was so difficult on its own, it was that there were just SO MANY decisions to be made and tasks to complete, and they all required careful consideration.  Things that I had never had to do before like renting port-a-potties, booking a sound and stage company, figuring out how many tents/tables we would need, thinking through our parking situation, working on a festival grounds layout, raising money…..oh yeah, that one was kind of important.  I quickly learned that it can be a challenge to attract sponsors for a first year event, especially in the wake of consecutive natural disasters like the tornadoes that hit central Oklahoma around the end of May this year.  Also, please keep in mind that I had, up until this point, only experienced festivals as an attendee and/or performer, never as an organizer, so this side of things was all brand new to me.  It’s an understatement to say I felt overwhelmed on numerous occasions and wished I could just walk away from it all.  People would laugh and think I was just trying to be funny when I would tell them about being curled up in a ball on the floor of my office with my eyes closed while my wife was asking if I was okay and me telling her I just wanted to stay where I was and keep my eyes closed…….yeah, that really happened.  But it was her support and several pep talks from good friends (Rob Crissinger and Tracey Zeeck specifically) that helped me get through times like these to continue moving toward our end goal.

So after all has been said and done (or on it’s way to being done, still in the process of following up on our budget and sponsor packet deliveries) the festival was an enormous success, especially for a first year event.  We had hoped for 2500 attendees and by all estimates we doubled that and then some.  The mayor of OKC was even there and introduced our set!  All the bands were amazing, the activities were a hit, the food trucks/vendors (all providing healthier food options) were delicious, all in all a grand time was had by everyone in attendance.  It was a very trying experience for me at times but I learned so much in a short amount of time and I feel like I’m truly a better person for it.

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 Would I do it again?  Well, planning has already started for next year, so I guess the answer is yes. My question for you is….who’s in for Wiggle Out Loud 2014??

That’s all for now, see you again soon from Behind the B3…….

The awesome Wiggle Out Loud follow up/promo video at the top was put together by the amazing Nathan Poppe

Review: Recess Monkey – Deep Sea Diver


CD:
Deep Sea Diver
Artist: Recess Monkey
Audience: Anyone who is at any point along that evolution diagram where they show a monkey becoming a human.
Sounds like: Everything. I will elaborate on this later.
Buy from: recessmonkeytown.com and iTunes
Random Thought: Rhesus macaque have 50 vertebrae on average. I hope Wikipedia didn’t lie to me.
Tweet Sized Review: Many bands strive to be masters of one style. Recess Monkey laughs at them as they master them all.

Would you like to hear something interesting? A review of a really good CD doesn’t actually write itself.

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Trust me, I sat on this one long enough that it probably should have. There are really three reasons as to why it has taken so long for me to write this. I’m a procrastinator, kids are a lot of work (Yeah I only have one, so), and I wanted to make sure I did this album justice. I probably won’t, but I’ll try.

How good is Recess Monkey’s new album, Deep Sea Diver? It’s really good. Like, so good that I would listen to it without my daughter in the car. So good that I would catch myself humming and singing the songs as I walked around the office.

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It’s kind of tough to explain to adults without kids what you are singing, but it didn’t matter. This album is really good.

I’m going to make a comparison that probably won’t make a lot of sense to some, but oh well. This is my space. The first band that popped into my head when I listened to “Deep Sea Diver” was The Urge. That’s right, that band from the ‘90s that had a couple of songs that received moderate airplay. “The Urge?”, you say? Let me explain. The Urge released an album in 1998 called Master of Styles. This CD did cover several different styles of music, some attempts more successful than others, but it is an album that I still appreciate to this day. I’m making this comparison because I think that Recess Monkey should have called this album Master of Styles instead of Deep Sea Diver (I know it doesn’t fit the nautical theme of the album, but work with me here).

I’ve tried to count how many different styles Recess Monkey uses on this album but I lose count. Many bands try to use different styles (especially in kindie) with varying amounts of success. Deep Sea Diver doesn’t miss on one single attempt at different styles. The album is enjoyable from start to finish and is really strong while Jack, Drew, and Korum incorporate more styles than you can shake a stick at.

Deep Sea Diver starts off strong with “Tambourine Submarine” which is a rocking track that begins to show the range the group has. The second track, “Fish Sticks”, is probably my favorite. “Fish Sticks” features several drum solos and several different styles in this one song. The fifth track, “Shrimp”, is sure to be a favorite. It has an excellent hip hop/funk feel to it. This song also features some clever lyrics. That is another thing I love about this album.

Recess Monkey does a great job of sprinkling clever lyrics throughout Deep Sea Diver. There are plenty of lyrics that kids will catch, but there are also several that seem to be placed strategically for the parents to catch. If you ask me, this is one aspect that makes it so enjoyable. Not only is the music good, it is clever and it has something for everyone.

What else can you expect from Deep Sea Diver? How about a pirate tune? How about a funky disco track? How about tunes that remind you of everything awesome about all styles of music? It’s all there!

I also enjoy that Recess Monkey sings about topics that kids can understand and relate to. It can be difficult for a band full of adults to pull that off. Kids can tell when something is lame and not give it the time of day. That will not happen with this album or this band. Oh, and kids might actually learn some things about the ocean, sea, or maps (“Compass Rose”) just by listening to this album! That’s a win in my book.

I would also feel like I’m not doing my job if I don’t mention how awesome their name is. Their name is Recess Monkey. Recess Monkey. Get it? They’ve been around long enough that I’m sure they are sick of people telling them how clever that name is, but I’m new to the scene and I’m going to talk about it. It might be one of the best band names I’ve ever heard.

So, to conclude, buy this album. I tried to do it justice through my rambling above. I probably should have just written that you should buy it because it is awesome. That probably would have done a better job and made a heck of a lot more sense.

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DVD Review – Sofia The First: Ready To Be A Princess

I don’t fall in to the anti-princess view of things. Sitting around and pointing fingers at Disney is the lazy way out. Princess movies don’t set up girls for a life of disappointment, bad parents do. Same goes for video game violence. Violent video games don’t lead to people to go off on a killing spree. If you use it as an opportunity to teach your kids valuable lessons, there is little harm involved.

That said, Disney heard the complaints about the princesses and listened. And came back with another princess? They did and it’s well done. Sofia is voiced by Ariel Winter from ABC’s Modern Family and airs on Disney Junior, the channel aimed and the young child set.

The lessons learned by Sofia in these episodes provide a nice catalyst for conversation with your child. Such as, taking responsibility for your action, even when bad. Doing what’s right, even if it’s not what you want to do. Being friendly & respectful to those considered ‘outsiders’.

So, this is isn’t traditional princess fare. Sofia’s not sitting around waiting for a man to save her.

Sofia The First: Ready To Be A Princess is the second DVD to be released. The first, Once Upon a Princess DVD was released last year.

Episodes included on this DVD:
1. A Royal Mess
2. The Shy Princess
3. Blue Ribbon Bunny
4. The Princess Test
5. Two To Tangu (featuring Jasmine in classic Disney cross promotion)

Sofia the First: Ready to Be a Princess is available now.

Two clips from the show are below.